‘Being targeted because I’m a celebrity’

"I will not apologise because I did not do anything wrong,” said actor Shah Rukh Khan, insisting that he did not start the scuffle at Wankhede stadium on Wednesday night.

“I was not drunk at the time. It is very easy to target a celebrity and say that he was drunk or he was abusing, because everyone believes them. They [MCA officials] should apologise to me,” he said during a press conference on Thursday.

The co-owner of the Kolkata Knight Riders insisted that he got aggressive because officials of the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) abused him and “manhandled the children” who had come with him. “I am not trying to behave like a macho guy here, but it is not nice when I have 30 children with me and suddenly 40 grown ups come aggressively towards me. I am going to stand my ground,” he said.

The actor faces a lifetime ban on entering Wankhede Stadium after he allegedly misbehaved with security guards and cricket officials.

The incident took place after Khan’s team Kolkata Knight Riders beat Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League match at the stadium The actor claimed that a nasty remark made by an MCA official triggered the altercation.

“I had gone to pick up my children who were there to watch the match. I went there, congratulated my team and when I came back, I saw that a gentleman was manhandling the children. They were pushing little girls. I just told him that this is not the way to behave,” said Khan. “He abused me in Marathi. I asked him to speak in Hindi. What he said, I think in today’s time should not be spoken.”

“They are supposedly controllers of an association and they should behave properly with not only celebrities, but with normal people too,” he said.

Ravi Sawant, MCA treasurer, said: “Khan’s behaviour was unacceptable and warrants the strictest of action. I hope that he will be banned for life.”